STTR Phase I: Non-Touch Infant Vital Sign Monitor

这一小型企业技术转让(STTR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是改进对婴儿猝死综合症呼吸停止的检测。这将产生一种便携式设备，用于长期监测婴儿S的生命体征，而不需要放置任何传感器与婴儿接触。拟议的项目承诺在一家新成立的小企业、一所工程学院和一家主要的健康科学中心之间建立公私伙伴关系，从而改善婴幼儿的福祉。通过将生命体征监测提供给每个拥有低成本半导体芯片系统的家庭，它可以成为婴儿监护仪市场上一款改变游戏规则的产品。这项拟议的技术指出了其他新的用途，如癫痫发作的检测和随后在预测睡眠呼吸暂停、帕金森氏症和S病方面的研究，以及非医疗应用，如远程监控地震、火灾受害者的搜救、边境巡逻、入口安全和透视墙雷达。成功的结果将有助于公司的增长、美国和全球销售额的增长，以及美国的经济竞争力。拟议中的项目将开发并展示一种替代目前需要与婴儿接触的监测器的方案。它将把一种新型的芯片解决方案集成到一种低成本的便携式设备中，以便在不接触婴儿的情况下长期监测生命体征。目标是设计一种商用互补金属氧化物半导体(CMOS)工艺中的芯片，以确保低成本和低功耗。这项研究将重点放在雷达非接触测量呼吸和心跳引起的生理运动上。还将研究设计一种天线阵列来发送射频信号，该信号将从人体反射回来，并由心跳和呼吸引起的生理运动进行相位调制。其结果将是体积紧凑的波束导向雷达，并将消除零检测点，因此生命体征活动的检测不会受到婴儿位置或雷达残留相位的影响。这种设备的批量生产成本将大大低于目前使用的系统。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase-I project is to improve the detection of cessation of respiration with regard to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. It will result in a portable device for long-term monitoring of baby?s vital signs without requiring any sensor to be placed in touch with a baby. The proposed project promises to result in improved wellbeing of infants and young children in the context of a public/private partnership between a newly formed small business, a College of Engineering and a major Health Sciences Center. By making vital sign monitoring available to every family with a low-cost semiconductor system-on-chip, it can be a game-changing product for the baby monitor market. The proposed technology points to other novel uses such as a detection of epileptic seizures and subsequent research in predicting sleep apnea, Parkinson?s disease, as well as non-medical applications such as remote monitoring of search-and-rescue for earthquake, fire victims; border patrol; entrance security; and see-through-wall radar. A successful result will contribute to the growth of the company, U.S. and global sales, and the economic competitiveness of the U.S.The proposed project will develop and demonstrate an alternative to current monitors which require contact with the baby. It will integrate a novel on-chip solution into a low-cost portable device for long-term monitoring of vital signs without baby contact. The objective is to design a chip in a commercial complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process to ensure low cost and low-power. The research will focus on radar non-contact measurement of physiological movements caused by breathing and heartbeat. Research will also be conducted on designing an antenna array to send a radio frequency signal, which will be reflected back from the human body and phase-modulated by physiological movements due to heartbeat and respiration. The result will be beam steering radar with a compact size and will eliminate the null detection point, so that detection of the vital sign activity will not be affected by either the position of the infant or the radar residue phase. The mass production cost of such a device will be significantly lower than currently employed systems.